Leadership programme for Indian MPs at Yale University

A group of Indian Parliamentarians are scheduled to arrive at the famous Yale University campus on Tuesday to attend the inaugural session of the India-Yale Parliamentary Leadership Programme, which is designed to provide a platform for discussions on issues facing India away from the legislative arena.

The five-day leadership programme for the Indian MPs at the university campus in New Haven, Connecticut, will be complemented by a three-day programme of meetings, discussions, and interactions with US government and business officials in Washington, DC, the university has said in a statement.

"The India-Yale Parliamentary Leadership Programme underscores Yale's longstanding commitment to educating our students for service and leadership. We have now gone a step further to include emerging and mid-career leaders. The programme will provide the parliamentarians with opportunities to critically think about the challenges of leadership and to explore freely, away from the legislative arena, the issues facing India," the university's president Richard Levin said.

"The programme was developed in consultation with the parliamentarians and the India-US Forum of Parliamentarians and reflects the belief that exposure to new fields and ideas can offer insight, perspective, and new ways of thinking for one's own work," the release said.

The topics to be covered in the programme include Economic and Social Development in India, Democracy and the Secular State, India-China Economic Relations, Affirmative Action, Climate Change and Sustainable Development, Foreign Direct Investment in India, Strategy, Negotiation and Game Theory for the Politician, Strategic Thinking for the Politician, and Energy Security.

The participating parliamentarians are Raashid Alvi (Congress), Deepender Singh Hooda (Congress), Naveen Jindal (Congress), Robert Kharshiing (Nationalist Congress Party), Chandan Mitra (Bharatiya Janata Party-nominated), Baijayant Panda (Biju Janata Dal Party), Dharmendra Pradhan (BJP), R C S Reddy (Telugu Desam Party), Shahid Siddiqui (Samajwadi Party), Dushyant Singh (BJP), Tiruchi Siva (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), and Madhu Goud Yaskhi (Congress).